Foreign Relations of the United States, 1969–1976, Volume
XXXIV, National Security Policy, 1969–1972

Preface

The Foreign Relations of the United States series presents
the official documentary historical record of major foreign policy decisions and
significant diplomatic activity of the United States Government. The Historian
of the Department of State is charged with the responsibility for the
preparation of the Foreign Relations series. The staff of
the Office of the Historian, Bureau of Public Affairs, under the direction of
the General Editor of the Foreign Relations series,
plans, researches, compiles, and edits the volumes in the series. Secretary of
State Frank B. Kellogg first promulgated official
regulations codifying specific standards for the selection and editing of
documents for the series on March 26, 1925. These regulations, with minor
modifications, guided the series through 1991.

Public Law 102–138, the Foreign Relations Authorization Act, established a new
statutory charter for the preparation of the series which was signed by
President George Bush on October 28, 1991. Section 198 of
P.L. 102–138 added a new Title IV to the Department of State’s Basic Authorities
Act of 1956 (22 U.S.C. 4351, et seq.).

The statute requires that the Foreign Relations series be
a thorough, accurate, and reliable record of major United States foreign policy
decisions and significant United States diplomatic activity. The volumes of the
series should include all records needed to provide comprehensive documentation
of major foreign policy decisions and actions of the United States Government.
The statute also confirms the editing principles established by Secretary
Kellogg: the Foreign Relations
series is guided by the principles of historical objectivity and accuracy;
records should not be altered or deletions made without indicating in the
published text that a deletion has been made; the published record should omit
no facts that were of major importance in reaching a decision; and nothing
should be omitted for the purposes of concealing a defect in policy. The statute
also requires that the Foreign Relations series be
published not more than 30 years after the events recorded. The editor is
convinced that this volume meets all regulatory, statutory, and scholarly
standards of selection and editing.

Focus of Research and Principles of Selection
for Foreign Relations, 1969–1976, Volume
XXXIV

After assuming office in January 1969, President Richard M. Nixon received some surprising news that affected the
formulation of national security policy for the remainder of his first
administration: since the end of his stint as Vice President eight years
earlier, the Soviet Union had achieved rough strategic parity with the United
States. Where the United States had at one time enjoyed a commanding military
superiority compared to its main global rival, it now suffered from “significant
vulnerabilities” vis-à-vis the Soviet Union. This volume documents the Nixon administration’s efforts to grapple with
this new strategic situation; its review of U.S.
nuclear and general purposes forces and strategic doctrine; its attempts to
ascertain the level of technological sophistication achieved by the Soviets in
their missile program; and its decision to deploy Safeguard, a modified
anti-ballistic missile system (ABM). The volume
also examines the evolution of the administration’s strategic priorities as its
defense plans ran up against the realities of a worsening American economy and a
tightening federal budget; its policy towards the use of chemical and biological
weapons; U.S. nuclear policy in Asia; and the
transition from military conscription to an all-volunteer armed force, a
movement undertaken during the first Nixon administration as the war in Vietnam drew to a close.
While the primary focus of the volume is on the formulation of national security
policy, one chapter is devoted to the October 1969 Joint Chiefs of Staff
Readiness Test, in which President Nixon
secretly placed on alert portions of the United States military, including its
nuclear forces, a fact that remained virtually unknown for many years
thereafter. Throughout this volume, a theme that arises time and again is the
relationship between the United States’ military strength and its diplomatic
strength; in particular, the importance of military might—real or perceived—to
the United States’ ability to maintain its credibility in the eyes of allies and
adversaries alike.

Like all recent Foreign Relations volumes in the Nixon-Ford sub-series, the emphasis of this
volume is on the formulation of policy, rather than its implementation.
Regarding national security policy, the key players in the policymaking process
were the White House, the National Security Council, the Department of Defense,
the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the Central Intelligence Agency, with input from
the Department of State.

Editorial Methodology

The documents are presented chronologically according to Washington time.
Memoranda of conversation are placed according to the time and date of the
conversation, rather than the date the memorandum was drafted.

Editorial treatment of the documents published in the Foreign
Relations series follows Office style guidelines, supplemented by
guidance from the General Editor and the chief technical editor. The documents
are reproduced as exactly as possible, including marginalia or other notations,
which are described in the footnotes. Texts are transcribed and printed
according to accepted conventions for the publication of historical documents
within the limitations of modern typography. A heading has been supplied by the
editor for each document included in the volume. Spelling, capitalization, and
punctuation are retained as found in the original text, except that obvious
typographical errors are silently corrected. Other mistakes and omissions in the
documents are corrected by bracketed insertions: a correction is set in italic
type; an addition in roman type. Words repeated in telegrams to avoid garbling
or provide emphasis are silently corrected. Words or phrases underlined in the
original are printed in italics. Abbreviations and contractions are preserved as
found in the original text, and a list of abbreviations is included in the front
matter of the volume.

Bracketed insertions are also used to indicate omitted text that deals with an
unrelated subject (in roman type) or that remains classified after
declassification review (in italic type). The amount and, where possible, the
nature of the material not declassified has been noted by indicating the number
of lines or pages of text that were omitted. Entire documents withheld for
declassification purposes have been accounted for and are listed with headings,
source notes, and number of pages not declassified in their chronological place.
All brackets that appear in the original text are so identified in footnotes.
All ellipses are in the original documents.

The first footnote to each document indicates the source of the document,
original classification, distribution, and drafting information. This note also
provides the background of important documents and [Page VI]policies and indicates whether the President or his major
policy advisers read the document.

Editorial notes and additional annotation summarize pertinent material not
printed in the volume, indicate the location of additional documentary sources,
provide references to important related documents printed in this and other
volumes, describe key events, and provide summaries of and citations to public
statements that supplement and elucidate the printed documents. Information
derived from memoirs and other first-hand accounts has been used when
appropriate to supplement or explicate the official record.

The numbers in the index refer to document numbers rather than to page
numbers.

Advisory Committee on Historical Diplomatic
Documentation

The Advisory Committee on Historical Diplomatic Documentation, established under
the Foreign Relations statute, reviews records, advises, and makes
recommendations concerning the Foreign Relations series.
The Advisory Committee monitors the overall compilation and editorial process of
the series and advises on all aspects of the preparation and declassification of
the series. The Advisory Committee does not necessarily review the contents of
individual volumes in the series, but it makes recommendations on issues that
come to its attention and reviews volumes as it deems necessary to fulfill its
advisory and statutory obligations.

Presidential Recordings and Materials
Preservation Act Review

Under the terms of the Presidential Recordings and Materials Preservation Act
(PRMPA) of 1974 (44 U.S.C. 2111 note), the
National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) has custody of the Nixon Presidential historical materials. The
requirements of the PRMPA and implementing regulations govern access to the
Nixon Presidential historical
materials. The PRMPA and implementing public access regulations require NARA to
review for additional restrictions in order to ensure the protection of the
privacy rights of former Nixon White
House officials, since these officials were not given the opportunity to
separate their personal materials from public papers. Thus, the PRMPA and
implementing public access regulations require NARA formally to notify the
Nixon Estate and former Nixon White House staff members that the agency
is scheduling for public release Nixon
White House historical materials. The Nixon Estate and former White House staff members have 30 days
to contest the release of Nixon
historical materials in which they were a participant or are mentioned. Further,
the PRMPA and implementing regulations require NARA to segregate and return to
the creator of files private and personal materials. [Page VII]All Foreign Relations volumes that
include materials from NARA’s Nixon
Presidential Materials Project are processed and released in accordance with the
PRMPA.

Nixon
White House Tapes

Access to the Nixon White House tape
recordings is governed by the terms of the PRMPA and an access agreement with
the Office of Presidential Libraries of the National Archives and Records
Administration and the Nixon Estate. In
February 1971, President Nixon initiated
a voice activated taping system in the Oval Office of the White House and,
subsequently, in the President’s Office in the Executive Office Building, Camp
David, the Cabinet Room, and White House and Camp David telephones. The
audiotapes include conversations of President Nixon with his Assistant for National Security Affairs,
Henry Kissinger, other White House
aides, Secretary of State Rogers, other
Cabinet officers, members of Congress, and key foreign officials. The clarity of
the voices on the tape recordings is often very poor, but the editor has made
every effort to verify the accuracy of the transcripts produced here. Readers
are advised that the tape recording is the official document; the transcript
represents an interpretation of that document. Through the use of digital audio
and other advances in technology, the Office of the Historian has been able to
enhance the tape recordings and over time produce more accurate transcripts. The
result is that some transcripts printed here may differ from transcripts of the
same conversations printed in previous Foreign Relations
volumes. The most accurate transcripts possible, however, cannot substitute for
listening to the recordings. Readers are urged to consult the recordings
themselves for full appreciation of those aspects of the conversations that
cannot be captured in a transcript, such as the speakers’ inflections and
emphases that may convey nuances of meaning, as well as the larger context of
the discussion.

Declassification Review

The Office of Information Programs and Services, Bureau of Administration,
conducted the declassification review for the Department of State of the
documents published in this volume. The review was conducted in accordance with
the standards set forth in Executive Order 12958, as amended, on Classified
National Security Information and applicable laws.

The principle guiding declassification review is to release all information,
subject only to the current requirements of national security as embodied in law
and regulation. Declassification decisions entailed concurrence of the
appropriate geographic and functional bureaus in the Department of State, other
concerned agencies of the U.S. Government, and
the appropriate foreign governments regarding [Page VIII]specific documents of those governments. The declassification
review of this volume, which began in 2005 and was completed in 2011, resulted
in the decision to withhold 3 documents in full, excisions of a paragraph or
more in 10 documents, and minor excisions of less than a paragraph in 24
documents.

The Office of the Historian is confident, on the basis of the research conducted
in preparing this volume and as a result of the declassification review process
described above, that the record presented in this volume provides an accurate
and comprehensive account of U.S. national
security policy from 1969 to 1972.

Acknowledgments

The editor wishes to acknowledge the assistance of officials, namely
John Powers, at the Nixon Presidential Materials Project of the National Archives
and Records Administration at College Park, Maryland (Archives II). He also
wishes to acknowledge the Richard Nixon
Estate for allowing access to the Nixon
Presidential recordings and the Richard
Nixon Library & Birthplace for facilitating that access.
Thanks are due to members of the History Staff of the Center for the Study of
Intelligence in the Central Intelligence Agency, who helped to arrange access to
the files of that agency, and to James Van Hook, the former
Joint CIA–State Historian. John
Haynes of the Library of Congress was responsible for expediting
access to the Kissinger Papers. The
editor was able to use the Kissinger
Papers, including the transcripts of telephone conversations, with the kind
permission of Dr. Henry A. Kissinger. The
editor would also like to thank Sandy Meagher for her valuable assistance in
expediting the use of Department of Defense files. Finally, the editor thanks
the staff of the National Archives and Records Administration, especially
David Langbart and Herbert
Rawlings; Michael Waesche of the Washington
Nation Records Center in Suitland, Maryland; and Gier Gundersen, Donna Lehman,
and Helmi Raaska, for their courtesy, professionalism, and tireless
assistance.

M. Todd Bennett collected the documents, made the
selections, and annotated the documents under the supervision of Louis
J. Smith, Chief of the Europe and General Division, and
Edward C. Keefer, General Editor of the Foreign Relations series. Chris
Tudda coordinated the de-classification review, under the
supervision of Susan C. Weetman, Chief of the
Declassification and Publishing Division. Carl Ashley did
the copy and technical editing. Do Mi Stauber prepared the index.